Film archive, 2025

Numakage Public Pool

Director OTA Shingo

1Festival entries

★Avg. rating

Affectionately nicknamed ‘the ocean,’ Numakage Public Pool in Saitama, just outside Tokyo, has defined summer for local residents for 52 years. Yet, in the summer of 2023, the city demolishes the pool against the wishes of the community. Framed around Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—the film juxtaposes the death of a place with the death of a person. Layering the scenery from inside and outside the pool with personal stories, it documents the loss of space in the universal language of sorrow. The director subtly weaves dramatic elements into these valuable records, highlighting the significance of the space of the pool in a cinematic way. A remarkable film that plainly yet also humorously captures the ache of loss, it will guide each viewer to their own ‘lost place’ in memory after the credits roll.